Posted by | Ray Cornelius
CONGRATS to 12-time Grammy Award-winning rap star Kendrick Lamar.
He made history this week as the first hip hop act to ever receive the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Music. The big news was announced on Monday (April 16) afternoon by Dana Kennedy, Administrator of the Pulitzers.
His chart-topping fourth album DAMN. was recognize as “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” This is the first time the Pulitzer for Music has been given to a non-classical or jazz artist.
Storytelling has been Lamar’s greatest skill and most primary mission, to put into (lots of) words what it’s like to grow up as he did—to articulate, in human terms, the intimate specifics of daily self-defense from your surroundings. Somehow, he’s gotten better. — Matthew Trammell, Pitchfork
DAMN. features the hit singles, “Humble” and “Loyalty.” Lamar was also the curator of the hugely successful Black Panther soundtrack which features the hit song, “All the Stars” with Grammy nominated vocalist SZA.
The Pulitzer Prize honors excellence in journalism and the arts.
Photo Credit: Instagram/Kendrick Lamar
